Large Hardon Collider

[Andalusian girls]

http://www.sciencealert.com/life-on-...s&limitstart=1


Alright guys I need input on this that can destroy my hopes and dreams.

it's been a while since i took biochemistry but

it would be unprecedented to observe biological life devoid of oxygen and hydrogenhydrogenoxygen, but there have been a few academic papers positing methane as a viable alternative, particularly in the too-cold-for-liquid-water conditions found on Titan. methane has a much lower freezing point than water allowing it retain a liquid state under the moon's conditions, Titan appears to have a plethora of the all-purpose-lego four valence electron wonder element carbon with which it can bind (it's ironic most people consider water the indispensable precursor to biological life when carbon is likely more vital), and methane-family compounds can form both stable membrane structures and porous lipid bylayers, ensuring both the rigidity needed for connected cell structures and the permeability needed for cells to transport organic matter both into and out of the cell.

improbable? sure, all biological life is an extraordinarily improbable event, but methane is a more promising water replacement chemical compound than most. but as the article points out our understanding of the conditions on Titan is very limited and we may be theorizing around faulty parameters.

[kuronosan]

The most important factor in life is hydrogen bonding, so as long as there are similar atoms that offer similar bonding properties then life without oxygen is absolutely plausible.

[Andalusian girls]

hydrogen's a slut with daddy issues it'll bond to anything with enough negative charge

[myreality]

lol, thanks for the input, was well explained.

[myreality]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/us/ten...ant/index.html

First new US nuclear reactor in 20 years goes live

[Tarage]

Woot, beginning of a new era if this becomes a success.

And then it pancaked and exploded.

[myreality]

Good argument for nuclear power from a small channel. Very Detailed explanations, just a little long on the intro.

[BerenTebogo]

I don't remember what thread it was in but I remember people talking about the recent speculation of solar system planets outside of our current known group.

Going to this today (free food) so I'll report back if anything interesting

[TsingTao]

Nice. Enjoy the free food, hope for free booze or interesting info.

[BerenTebogo]

Okay, so firstly, that was the best talk I've been to in recent memory. Learned more fun facts than I could shake a stick at.

Fun stuff first:

Uranus, when it was first discovered, was named "George" after King George. Didn't stick.
There is a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) named after Joe Biden.

Evidence for Planet 9:
* Most KBO aphelion between 30~50 AU.
* Observations of few ( < 20 at this point) KBO with ahelion > 250 AU (Sedna, Biden)
* Numerical simulations of thousands of test particle run over 4 billion year timescale (solar system formation time) dumped 30~50 AU ring bound to Neptune orbit result in a few objects with > 250 AU ahelion.
* Orbits all aligned in ~same direction

Simulation vs. Observed



*Note that simulation orbits point to right doesn't mean anything (you'll see in observed they're pointing to the left. Just invert simulation pic and you'll see same behavior. All that matters is Planet 9 orbit is opposing direction to orbit of KBO objects.

* Need ~10 Mearth mass placed outside KB for KB to converge computationally over 4bil yr run. < 10 Mearth and KB doesn't converge, > 10 Mearth and KB is destroyed
* In early SS the planets were more compact in their orbits, ~100m years (time argued a bit) an instability occurred (widely accepted)
* Simulations of early SS compact orbit with addition of ~10Mearth object result in ~same SS config we see today with 10Mearth object sometimes being ejected out of system at time of instability.
* Ejected object would still have perihelion tied to Jupiter, how to fix that? Perturbation from transit near stars at ~aphelion of orbit could detach perihelion from Jupiter. Simulations show that often this will result in full ejection from system, but perturbed perihelion could be tied to ~Neptune orbit
* Near Earth asteroid survey has discovered huge aphelion orbit asteroids with trans-neptunian orbits that can be explained by simulations with Planet 9 included
* The 6 degree solar obliquity can will result from ~10Mearth orbit over 4bil yr according to simulation - (not necessarily the cause for it but interesting nonetheless)

Planet 9 proposed stats:
Orbital period: 15,000-20,000 years
Mass: ~10 Mearth
Radius: 2~4 Rearth
Orbital inclination: 30 deg

---

tl;dr: I'm convinced.

[BerenTebogo]

Edited in some more info above. Sorry for disjointedness. Posted on web and edited on phone.

[Cantih]

Name it Rykros.

[arus2001]

I imagine if they do confirm, ratify, or whatever it is the eggheads do to agree it's a new planet, they'll likely stick to the Roman goddess scheme. And this being the PC era, if it's not Juno, Minerva, Diana, etc. then you're all sexist pigs.

[Day]

How mad is pluto right now. #FREEPLUTO #DWARFLIVESMATTER

[TsingTao]

Pretty cool, thanks Sath.

Also Planet 9 poster is fantastic.

[Coren]

I can't find the article right now, but I recently read that one of the guys researching the new 9th planet expects us to find it within the next ~15 months (by the end of 2017) based on the amount of sky we can search at a time, plus the fact that we can't see much on the direct other side of the sun.

[BerenTebogo]

I can't find the article right now, but I recently read that one of the guys researching the new 9th planet expects us to find it within the next ~15 months (by the end of 2017) based on the amount of sky we can search at a time, plus the fact that we can't see much on the direct other side of the sun.

Yeah guy today said within 2 years or so.

He said he was 85%+ confident that they know where it is now they are just analyzing data.

[Coren]

I guess it's pretty hard to spot something that far away due to nearly complete lack of light.

Even assuming we find it, what kind of pictures could we get? How much light is there that far away? Near as I can tell, it's current location is something like 25 times as far as pluto... wayyyyy the fuck out there.

[archibaldcrane]

Good news is it's about 12x the diameter of pluto.

[Coren]

But at 25x the distance, its a smaller target than pluto.